Moto Z Play Review and Full Specifications

Motorola Moto Z Play Smartphone was launched in August 2016. The phone comes with a 5.50-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at a PPI of 403 pixels per inch.
The Motorola Moto Z Play is powered by 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and it comes with 3GB of RAM. The phone comes with 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 2TB via a micro SD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Motorola Moto Z Play packs a 16-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.

Moto Z Play is the long-lasting and affordable Smartphone with creative modular accessories, and most customized phone. Moto Z Play brings the Moto Z’s modularity to the affordable mid-range segment. Last year’s Moto X Playset new benchmarks for its price point. One of its plus points was again, good battery life. The Motorola Moto Z Play runs Android 6.0.1 and is powered by a 3510mAh nonremovable battery. It measures 156.40 x 76.40 x 6.99 (height x width x thickness) and weighs 165.00 grams.

The Motorola Moto Z Play is a dual SIM (GSM and GSM) Smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, USB OTG, Headphones, 3G and 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include Compass Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, and Gyroscope.

The Moto Z Play doesn’t have the durable screen of the Verizon and US-exclusive Moto Z Force. It has a bigger battery, cheaper price, and a headphone jack. You can charge via USB-Type C and play music over the normal 3.5mm jack here, unlike on the Z and Z Force.

Moto Z Play, therefore, fixes some of the gripes with the Moto Z and opens modular Smartphone accessories to the audience looking for a cheaper phone.

Let’s see Features of Moto Z Play:

The Moto Z Play Smartphone Size:

Moto phones have always been huge and chunky blocks of plastic. The Moto Z Play is more or less the same, but, it’s a lot closer to the Moto phones of yesteryear in that it’s thick and it’s chunky. It has a 3.5mm audio jack too. Unlike the Moto Z, the Moto Z Play has an all-glass and metal body. The camera bulge on the back, which stuck out like a sore thumb in the Moto Z, is a lot more bearable now because of all that extra thickness. Shell cover back plate is hard to imagine. It still comes off quite easily when you accidentally drop it, though, so you better be careful. Moto Z Play brings the Moto Z’s modularity to the affordable mid-range segment. But being an affordable mid-range modular phone isn’t the only USP of the Moto Z Play.

Battery life of Moto Z Play

Moto Z Play brings awesome two-day battery life with a 3510 mAh capacity. Its 1080p resolution and softer specs increase longevity. It supports fast charging, but USB-C cable and charger are one piece. Motorola promises 50 hours of mixed use, and we generally agree with that number. We found that the Moto Z Play lasted a full 44 to 48 hours – up to two days – based on our heavier-than-average phone addiction. That’s great among even the best smartphones in the world.

Generally, we are happy with day-and-a-half battery life, but this phone tops that by another half day. It’s about less time charging, and, just as the name suggests, more time playing. In our standardized battery lab test, a 100% charged Moto Z Play made it through a 90-minute looped HD video and only dropped 7% to 93%. By comparison, Moto Z dropped 27%. Ouch.

This longer-lasting version of the Moto Z does take more time to fully charge, but it features the same fast-charging Turbo Power charger in the box. It took a depleted battery to 24% in just 15 minutes. We liked the Turbo Power charger’s reversible USB-C connection, and only had an issue with the fact that Motorola permanently ties the big charger block and USB cable. You can’t separate the two and plug it into a computer, for example. We had the same issue with the Moto Z and Moto Z Force.

The Moto Z Play Performance:

The phone is powered by a 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clubbed with Adreno 506 GPU and 3GB RAM. It comes with 32GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 256GB via micro SD card. The dual SIM phone comes with a hybrid card slot, supports 4G LTE (VoLTE-ready), USB Type-C, OTG and NFC connectivity option.

The Moto Z Play, like the Moto Z, also runs an almost stock version of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and will be upgradable to Android Nougat soon enough. It’s a treat to work around with, the Moto Z Play. Key Moto takeaways like Active Display and Touchless Control come pre-bundled with the Moto Z Play as well. Active Display essentially gives you a quick look at your notifications, as well as system clock when you approach your phone. Simply dragging the notification up shows more detail, while dragging it down unlocks the phone and takes you straight inside the required app for further action.

The phone also comes with Moto Assist and Actions. Assist allows a user to deal with different notifications at different times while with Actions, the phone reacts to motion gestures. Google has just joined the hardware race with its Pixel phones. The Mountain View company is banking a great deal on in-house software, more precisely the Google Assistant, to sell its new phones and it’s every bit worth the hype. The Snapdragon 625 and near vanilla Android together ensure that basic tasks are handled well by the Moto Z Play. The phone is, however, prone to lag sometimes especially when you play games like Asphalt.

The mid-level chipset, however, ensures the phone is a lot more heat-efficient than counterparts. The phone simply never gets too hot to handle, no matter how you push it. It gets loud, but not loud enough. There are better options in the market if you’re looking for better audio. Phone calls made with the phone are, however, of excellent quality and we did not encounter any odd call drop issues with our review unit.

Camera Features of The Moto Z Play:

The Moto Z Play comes with a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection and laser autofocus and dual-LED (dual tone) flash. The camera app is quick to open, focus and shutter speed is also fairly decent for a phone in this price range. The camera app itself is disappointing, though. It is bare basics with very limited manual control with only drag to focus and automatically adjust exposure option available.

When you open the camera app you can see almost empty UI. Touching anywhere on the screen clicks a photo and chances are you’d end up clicking many in one go on the initial run. Once you spend some time with it then you realize there’s a settings toggle buried on the left that you need to swipe out for more options. If you’re looking for more manual control, it is better you look elsewhere. But, if point and shoot are your things, the Moto Z Play will, at least, get the job done.

The phone captures good photos in good lighting and adequate ones in low lighting provided the subject is still and not moving. Low-light photos are not that great with prominent noise and subject going out of focus is also fairly common. All in all, the Moto Z Play is hard to recommend as a stand-alone camera phone. The front 5-megapixel camera onboard the Moto Z Play, however, clicks good selfies even in tricky light and for low light, it comes with a LED flash. The flash often results in washed out photos but at least you know you have the option when the lighting is bad.

Moto Z Play Design:

It comes with Flat glass back with an aluminum frame at 7mm thick; Fingerprint sensor smartly locks and unlocks the screen Includes a headphone jack absent from the Z and Z Force. The Moto Z Play takes several cues from the flat design of its Moto Z counterparts, only it’s noticeably thicker in the hand. It measures 156.4 x 76.4 x 6.99mm and is 165g. Even with the same 5.5-inch screen size and non-curved back, it feels bigger in one hand. This extra girth gives you the ability to listen to music and charge at the same time. It sounds crazy to list this as a pro, but missing headphone jacks are a common thing now.

The fingerprint sensor takes up a lot of room and extends the phone’s chin, but it works to our liking by both waking the phone and putting it to sleep with one touch. Being able to both lock and unlock the phone without having to hunt for the side sleep/wake button on the frame is a tremendous advantage for Motorola’s new phone series. It’s an especially big deal (for a bad reason) because the side power button is equidistant to the volume down and up buttons. It’s easy to get it mixed up with their non-rocker volume button design.

The Moto Z Play includes a water-repellent nano-coating, but it isn’t waterproof like the Galaxy S7. It’s just good enough to survive accidental spills, splashes or light rain, not full submersions. The Moto Z Play comes in a two of colors so far: black with a silver frame and fringe, and white with a gold frame and trim. The real variety comes with MotoMods.

Video Playback

Sensors

Colours

PROS:

Cheapest Moto Z phone yet

Works with all MotoMods

Includes a 3.5mm headphone jack

CONS:

Not a powerful performer

Thicker, even without accessories

Camera won’t impress you

The verdict of Moto Z Play:

The Moto Z Play is meant to play, made clear with its headphone jack and long-lasting battery. And everyone has invited thanks to its cheaper price. Just don’t expect high performance from the chipset or camera on this thicker Moto Z Play